SideFX Marvelous Machines Contest 2016 for Houdini

Machines permeate through nearly every aspect of our daily lives. They are tiny and they are colossal. They work silently on the macro scale and they can screech and klang to move the earth. They can blast through the stratosphere and they can drill into the earth’s core under thousands of pounds of pressure. What kind of machine exists in your mind? How does it move? What does it sound like? Show us the machine of your mind.

Create your marvelous machine using Houdini and Mantra! It can be a still frame, or an animated sequence of infinite moving machine parts. There are no restrictions on file type or image/movie resolution – and yes, you can import external file formats (though the more you do in Houdini, the more we take that into consideration). As for Mantra, sure you can use just texture maps – but the Principled Shader and VOPS can be your better friend.

As for compositing – you can use Photoshop or After Effects or any application you like; but the less you rely on them, the more the Jury will take that into consideration. Bonus if you use just COPs instead! You can work in teams, but it may be difficult to split the prizes up amongst yourselves, so we recommend solo entries.